What next for public sector reform? Announcing plans for the biggest shake-up in 30 years, the Scottish Government promises to be “an active participant in the dialogue over the coming weeks and months, ensuring we engage with a range of partners, stakeholders and communities.” For the Mercat Group of former local authority chief executives, George Thorley here presents a first response.

The starting point for the most fundamental change to the shape and form of the public sector in Scotland has emerged over the past two weeks with the Scottish Government’s eighty page Programme for Government and its five page Public Sector Reform: Proposal.

Ministers have set a three month period for consultation on their initial suggestions on the future structure, form responsibilities and duties of the whole of Scottish Local Government, a collective of organisations delivering over 200 services on a 24/7 basis including owning and managing 327,000 social rented houses, running over 2,500 primary and secondary schools and hundreds of nursery schools, delivering a wide range of social care services for the most vulnerable individuals and families in our society; organising and delivering town and spatial planning, protective, environment and safety services with a workforce of 262,000.

“Ministers say that they want to agree changes with local government and others within a few months – that’s lightning speed for reforms of this sort” Glen Campbell BBC.

Whilst there is no case to say that the present structure of Local Government in Scotland is the best it can be, born as it was in 1996 out of a simple political objective to kill off Scotland’s highly successful Regional Councils, at least the UK Government of the day ran a consultation period over an eighteen month period, involving two Consultation Papers then a White Paper before Parliamentary consideration.

It seems that in an attempt to be seen as dynamic, the present Scottish Government plans for a rushed restructuring of the public sector including local government will undoubtedly lead to an outcome that again weakens and diminishes local democracy, local accountability and local delivery.

What’s the hurry?

This rapid approach is completely at odds with the lofty ambitions of the Programme for Government which includes a wide range of proposals spanning Education; Social Care; Housing; Leisure Services; Planning and Economic Development and Community Safety – key services currently provided by Councils.

For example, the First Minister’s Foreword to the Programme for Government includes a dozen or more promises involving services currently delivered by councils including:

• Warm, safe and affordable homes
• Ending the use of temporary accommodation for children
• Extending Childcare between 9 months and the end of Primary School
• Improving ABCs in our schools
• Protecting our beautiful end valuable environment
• Shifting more care out of hospitals to the community
• Strengthening public protection
• Enhancing community cohesion

Reading the whole programme ends up with an impressive tally of around 100 promises that are currently the responsibility of, or heavily involve, local government.

Given that reality, you might think that there would be some recognition in the Programme for Government of councils being seen as a vital partner in the governance of Scotland or an equivalent statement in the Public Sector Reform paper. It looks like we have travelled a long distance from the Partnership promises of “working together” outlined in the 2023 Verity House Agreement between the Scottish Government and CoSLA..

Oh Yes There’s More

Take care therefore not to be hoodwinked by a future announcement that says “Great News – there are now fewer Quangos than before”

You’d think that any Consultation Paper on Public Service Reform might mention the Government’s plans for the Quango State comprising 134, soon to be 135 (More Homes Scotland) unelected organisations.  There is not. However, there is an interesting statement that some priorities are best delivered at a national level; others best delivered regionally, and some at a level closer to communities and a call that we “must get the balance right.”

The recognition that there is a three-tier split across the many hundreds of services currently delivered by Government Departments, Quangos and councils is welcome. But there is absolutely no follow through on what services “are best delivered at the national level.”

Surely any wholesale reassessment of who does what at each level is the starting point for any reform of this scale and complexity?

There is reference in the Programme for Government to the merger of a limited number of Quangos into Super Quangos and a comment in the Public Sector Reform paper that “there are functions within existing public bodies that could be brought within the regional or local democratic sphere” but that’s as far as it goes as none are subsequently identified.

Take care therefore not to be hoodwinked by a future announcement that says “Great News – there are now fewer Quangos than before” as the overall size of the Quango state will not necessarily have diminished. The prospect of these Super Quangos with no real interest in local issues, local solutions and local accountability lording over their empires seems an unnecessary and retrograde step.

Guided by Four Principles

On the one hand we have a gloomy prediction – by the end of this five-year Plan we will live in an even more centralised state with very large Quangos operating in an environment with no understanding or interest in local issues, local delivery or local democratic accountability.  These new Super Quangos will continue to vie with each other to control “their” areas.  The opportunity for all of Scotland to prosper will be lost.

On the other hand, things could be different.  As we have argued in a separate paper, what is missing from the laudable intention to streamline Scotland’s bloated public sector landscape are a set of Principles that should underpin any changes, principles that should underpin any changes and can comfortably fit in with the recognition by the Government that some services are best delivered at the national level, others at the regional level and others at the community level.

We can all anticipate what will happen if there are no underlying Principles – there will be an almighty and ill- informed Stramash. We argue in an associated paper that chaos can be avoided if we apply the following four principles to underlie any reform – a list borrowed and amended from the 2011 Christie Commission’s conclusions;

1) People – Public services should be delivered at the lowest level consistent with sound democratic and financial accountability in a system that empowers individuals and communities to design and help run local services

2) Partnership – Integrate public, private and third sector providers to coordinate care and support on the basis that one size does not fit all

3) Prevention – Shift financial investment towards preventative services to stop negative outcomes before they start

4) Performance – Parliament should take responsibility for services that are national in nature (Taxation, Finance, Justice) and the remainder should be allocated to democratically accountable local government. Cut administrative waste, eliminate duplication and share resources across organisations.

Finally, given the First Minster’s stated enthusiasm for the European Union, he should declare his Government’s endorsement of the 1985 European Charter of Local Self-Government – an action that would confirm his Government’s belief in the value of Scottish Local Government.

Featured image: Rapid EV charging from Travelling Cabinet Ayr (Scotland) on November 4, 2024: Scottish Government CC By-2.0

Further reading

BBC Scotland’s 32 Councils could be cut to six under government plans

LGIU Scottish Governments local government reform proposition; what does it mean?